You knew it was coming. Now it's here.

An Oregon radio station is openly boasting that it has put an Artificial Intelligence disc jockey on as its part-time midday host. KBFF in Portland has a real-life jock named Ashley Z. They are using her voice generated by A.I. to host segments of the show. The Top 40 station claims it's the first full time use of the technology for this purpose in the world.

The actual human host doesn't seem to mind, noting it frees her to make appearances in the community and accomplish other things while her show is on. And to be fair, the station doesn't try to hide the fact it's a computer doing the talking. The human calls herself "Ashley Z." on air. The bot identifies itself as "A.I. Ashley."  

"Live 95.5’s parent company, Alpha Media, assured us that [Ashley] would not be losing her job and would still be paid the same salary.

“It’s a hybrid situation where we’ll have traditional Ashley on during some segments, and we’ll have AI Ashley on during other segments,” Phil Becker, Alpha Media EVP of Content, explained to TechCrunch. “In an instance where AI Ashley would be broadcasting, the traditional Ashley might be doing something in the community, managing social posts or working on digital assets or the other elements that come with the job.”

So how good or bad does it sound? You can decide for yourself in this Twitter post, which features the real Ashley comparing herself to her electronic counterpart. And a remarkable second video where A.I. Ashley makes a phone call to a listener who's won a contest. The caller and the machine interact and the responses from the A.I. are surprisingly accurate. 

The reaction from listeners has been mixed. 

"Twitter users expressed their disappointment in the new decision. One user even said the AI voice was disrespectful to the entire radio profession."

Radio station gets part-time AI DJ based on its midday host